At the beginning of the 20th century agriculture was thriving in the Hungarian farmlands. The owners of self-supporting farms with huge strips of land were fairly poor, but managed to get by. Today they are the symbols of poverty. To this day thousands of people remain living without electricity on farms, with no lighting at night and running the TV off a battery; without a refrigerator, and no modern heating of any kind. The installation of electricity would cost a fortune, so whoever can afford to, moves away.

Tamara Kiss washes the dishes at her family’s farm, which lacks electricity, in Nyársapát. She said she wouldn’t move to a village for all the money in the world. She once went to school but couldn’t stand the four walls of her distant dormitory, where, locked away from nature, she wanted to commit suicide.

Janos Kiss, Pal Szabo, and Janos Nagy transport wood with their horse and carriage to the village of Nyársapát, in southern Hungary. Since a normal truck would get stuck in the high snow or water, horses are still very useful in the farmlands.

Péter Gallai has left his village, when he was eighteen to search for his father, who has left their family long ago, and lived on a farm. Now Péter lives in his father's old farm, which lacks electricity, and earns money as a day labourer at the farms nearby.

Imre Bozoki and Andras Nogradi share some gossip in Andras’s home. As a farm caretaker, Imre not only helps with transportation and by bringing water and lunch to the farmers in his territory, but he is a person with whom they share a few minutes of conversation.

Janos Gera sits in his kitchen near Morahalom, in southern Hungary. Janos is living with a mental disability. He had a factory job in the town nearby, but as the factory has now closed, he stays at home on his farm most of the time.

Mrs. Sándor Takács doesn’t have enough money to buy firewood, but she gets a bit of wood from the local government and neighbors and uses it for heat as long as it lasts. “Do you know where I will be spending the winter? Beneath my duvet!” she says.

Gezane Balint makes a cake for her son Veszter on their farm near Morahalom, in southern Hungary. Veszter never got married, as he couldn’t find a wife in the neighborhood, so he has lived with his mother his whole life.

Zoltán Cziriák left his sublet apartment in the town of Cegléd in order to buy a farm and start bio-farming. Although he does have electricity, the little money he had was not enough for substantial land, and so his enterprise is at a standstill. (near Törtel)